Kristen R. Ghodsee's Blog

Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto – Aaron Bastani

I just loved this book. Well written and exciting, with lots of thought-provoking arguments. For all fans of Andrew Yang, Bastani’s text is a must read.

Despite the claim that Marx favoured violent revolution, the truth is he never believed that transition beyond capitalism would be an exclusively political process – something so simple to achieve as to merely require replacing one group of rulers with another. It certainly entailed class struggle and the working class gaining political power, but it also needed new ideas, technologies, and social relations.

— page 55

Liberal ends, specifically the individual being uniquely placed to determine their path in life, are impossible without communist means. The possibility of most people finding happiness and meaning is impossible as these things are commodities – subject to profit rather than need.